Fast Report

03/14/06 -- McKeon named chair of education committee

• The new chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.), says he will focus on the “new realities” of the global economy.

These new realities are “an economy that is worldwide, high-tech, and highly competitive,” McKeon says. “The edge that America brings to the table is innovation and adaptability. If we lose that, then we will lose not only our standard of living, but our position of global leadership.”

McKeon had been a member of the education committee since 1993 and chaired the Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness since 1996. He succeeds Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), who was elected House Majority Leader.

McKeon was a member of the school board of the William S. Hart Union High School District in Santa Clarita, Calif., from 1978 to 1987.

Federal hurricane aid distributed

• U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced the distribution of $1.1 billion in hurricane relief funds to states March 2.

The funding is authorized by the Hurricane Education Recovery Act, which was passed by Congress in December as part of a Defense Department spending bill.

That measure includes $645 million in emergency impact aid to help cover the education costs of displaced students nationwide and $750 million to help restart school operations in the most severely damaged schools on the Gulf Coast.

The impact-aid funds can be used to reimburse public and private schools for their costs in hiring extra teachers; providing books and other classroom supplies; tutoring; counseling; health services; and transportation.

The department distributed $120 million in March to reimburse the education costs of displaced students for the first quarter of the 2005-06 school year. The remainder of the $645 million will be provided in three additional payments before July 31, 2006.

The funding formula is based on the number of displaced students that states reported for the first quarter -- about 158,000 students nationwide, of which 11 percent are in private schools.

For the first quarter, applicants will receive $750 in initial payments for each student they took in and $937.50 for each student with disabilities.

Spellings also announced that $496 million is immediately available to reopen public and private schools in the states most affected by the hurricanes. Louisiana will receive $345.6 million, Mississippi will receive $122.5 million, and Texas will receive $28.2 million.

The department already distributed $253 million in school restart funds to those states and Alabama in January.

NSBA brief addresses IDEA witnesses

• NSBA submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court Feb. 21 asking it to affirm that school districts do not have to reimburse parents for the costs associated with expert witnesses who testify in special education cases.

The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments in Arlington v. Murphy this term. The case involves parents’ request to be reimbursed nearly $30,000 in legal fees from the Arlington (Ill.) Central School District for fees paid to a consultant who assisted them during the IEP (individual education program) process. 

“Reimbursing parents for the expense of hiring an expert witness will divert a school district’s already limited resources away from where the money belongs, which is funding educational programs for all students,” says NSBA Executive Director Anne L. Bryant.

“Should the Supreme Court agree with the parents, school districts could be required to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in expert fees that have not been permitted as costs under a traditional reading” of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), says NSBA General Counsel Francisco Negrón.

The amicus brief points out that a ruling upholding a strict interpretation of IDEA will limit the ability of self-styled advocates and experts to seek out parents of special education students and encourage litigation with the sole idea of pursuing school district dollars. 

“Allowing parents to recoup expert witness fees will simply perpetuate a cycle of costly litigation by encouraging parents to hire experts,” Negrón says. “Public schools in turn will have little choice but to hire their own experts to rebut experts hired by parents.”

Such a practice would not encourage settlement or collaboration, which are critical components of IDEA, he says.

NEA affiliates to work with AFL-CIO unions

• The National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, approved an agreement Feb. 27 with the AFL-CIO to allow local affiliates of both organizations to work together to support the needs of working families.

The NEA represents 2.8 million teachers and education support professionals, while the AFL-CIO represents 9 million workers in more than 50 separate unions, including the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), NEA’s main rival.